


Of  Horns, Halos and everything in between

by follow_the_white_rAbbit_777



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Angels, Confusion, Demon Magic, Demons, Fluff, M/M, Magic, Memories, Mind Manipulation, Okay I'll stop now, Panic Attacks, Parties, at least in parts, everyone deserves love, evil powers used for good, i mean sort of but don't hate them, i'll update the tags as the story progresses, magical limits, minho the demon has a social life, none of the main characters are truly evil, send help i've never done this before, slight warning for drugs and alcohol abuse, soft, unlikely friends, urban fantasy au, use of magic with questionable intentions, what even is a tag
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-06-28 10:13:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19810183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/follow_the_white_rAbbit_777/pseuds/follow_the_white_rAbbit_777
Summary: Lee Minho has never wanted to help someone before, let alone comfort them. As a demon he thoroughly enjoys bringing chaos and destruction to everyone he encounters. Then, one fateful night, he meets Jisung and all of a sudden, everything is different...





	1. An unlikely acquaintance

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! I've been on AO3 for over a year now and I've been wanting to post something for a Long time, but I've never worked up enough Courage to do that until now...  
> I hope you guys enjoy my Minsung Fic!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minho and Jisung meet for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I've been on AO3 for over a year now and I've been wanting to post something for a Long time, but I've never worked up enough Courage to do that until now...  
> I hope you guys enjoy my Minsung Fic!

Lee Minho was not a soft person, or a particularly helpful one. Strictly speaking he was not a person at all. Most importantly, though, he had never felt the urge to help another human being – not until now, at least. However, the scene he had stumbled upon was also unlike anything he had ever seen before.

Tonight was Minho’s first night out by himself, he was standing in somebody’s bedroom, invisible as per usual, and he was standing next to someone. The human was sitting on the ground, his arms wrapped around himself so tightly the demon wouldn’t have been surprised if they left behind bruises. What confused Minho the most was that, despite being almost motionless, he was clearly struggling to breath.

This was not the kind of weakness he had been expecting to find. Being the creature he was he found himself drawn to weakened souls, souls easily corrupted and enticed, people with a questionable moral compass at best. When Minho had left the safety of his home by himself, confident that he could deal with the world of humans on his own, those were the people he had been familiar with. He was good at corrupting humans. Nothing made him happier than nudging someone in the wrong direction.

The first place he had visited on his nightly tour was a club. Amidst the flashing lights and the dull, aching throb of the bass filling the space he had sensed something infinitely more interesting to him than the music: Conflict. He felt drawn to a shadowy corner and once he got there he immediately realized why. A young woman, probably in her early twenties, had just spotted a past lover. Her boyfriend wasn’t with her and, in her drunken state, she was seriously contemplating going over to them for a short rendez-vouz. It didn’t take much, Minho hardly had to do anything at all before she swayed over to him, a sultry smile on her lips.

He closed his eyes and opened his mind wide in search of someone else. To his delight he sensed a group of teenagers at the bar. They were wearing heavy makeup so as to look older than they actually were, but the makeup couldn’t fool Minho’s demon senses. Not a single one of them was 18, let alone 21. He grinned and focused on the barkeeper, using his magic to cloud his judgement, making the teens seem in their mid-twenties. He even persuaded him to give each of them an extra helping of hard liquor. Last but not least he convinced him to give the group free drinks whenever they came around. Minho didn’t have to wait long for the results of his little mind game to appear: Not even half an hour later the entire group was completely wasted.

He slid over to them, still invisible, and planted an idea in some of their minds. One of them would make a drunk phone call to their parents, another would try to kiss his best friend’s girlfriend. A gleeful smile spread across his face as he watched the chaos unfold, knowing they would wake up with a nasty hangover and having lost all trust in each other.

Minho’s next victim was a guy who had come to the club all by himself. Just by touching his mind he found out that he was going through a difficult breakup, that he hadn’t answered his phone in several hours, and that his friends were starting to worry. Most importantly, though, he was a recovering addict. Minho drifted over to him, a cruel smirk on his face. This was going to be easy because the man was already questioning if it really mattered if he went back to his old habits. The demon had no trouble whatsoever locating a dealer and about ten minutes later his target was disappearing behind the door to the men’s bathroom, a small bag of crystalline bliss in his pocket.

Several hours later Minho was satisfied beyond anything he could ever have imagined and was just about ready to call it a night when he felt someone else drawing him in. It felt different from the people dancing beneath the flashing lights, stronger somehow and far more desperate.

And now, this. Minho was still staring at the human in front of him. Everything about the entire situation seemed off to him. This guy was not making a decision, he was by himself, and yet he could feel how very open his soul was. To him it was shining like a beacon, quivering in all of its beauty and he could feel it shying away from his presence, though its owner was clearly too out of it to even try to close his mind.

Minho reached out with his mind, trying to get an idea of what was going on. The effect was instant. The human started to shake and small, distressed noises left his mouth. The worst part for Minho was being close enough to feel his mind. It was deafening, and at the same time the quietest place he had ever encountered. It felt like the human’s mind was shouting silence at him, or a billion sounds so loud he could no longer tell if what he was hearing was noise or the lack of it. Minho stumbled back, his ears ringing and his entire being aching with a need to escape. What this person was going through was worse than torture, worse than any kind of punishment he had ever seen in hell. He had only brushed against his mind and yet he felt like staying any longer would have ended him.

This wasn’t right. Being a demon Minho did not exactly have what anyone else would have referred to as good morals, but this was wrong. No one deserved to be tortured like this, this kind of pain was reserved for only the most wicked of people down in hell. This guy, as far as he could tell, did not fit that description in the least. He actually seemed like a gentle and at times somewhat timid person, someone goodhearted and kind. He had to do something.

Minho sighed and dropped his cover, stepping out of the shadows. At first the human showed no reaction whatsoever, too caught up in his own mind to notice, but then then did, and Minho realized he had probably succeeded in making things worse than they already were. His demon instincts glowed with satisfaction and he had to remind himself that he was trying to help this person, as alien as it felt to him.

The human stopped hugging himself, almost falling over in a panic-stricken attempt to get away.

“Wait! I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to scare you.” Could he really do this? Help someone? What if he was predestined to cause harm with his actions, no matter the intention behind them? Most importantly… Was this really what he wanted to do?

The young man didn’t listen, half crawling, half stumbling to the other side of the room. Minho tried to follow, but stopped dead in his tracks seeing the human’s face had taken on a ghostly white color.

“What’s wrong?” This was different from before and Minho could sense the human’s heart beating much too fast. This wasn’t right… Minho could feel the man’s agony increasing, and he made his decision. Minho simply couldn’t leave him like this.

“… can’t…” He wheezed, taking a desperate breath. “Can’t breathe… I can’t breathe! Get away from me!”

“Listen… I’m not here to hurt you, okay?”

The human shot him a desperate look. “I don’t…. care. Just… make it stop! Make it stop I can’t do this!” His voice became louder until he was almost screaming.

Minho decided that this was his chance to try to get closer to him and he walked over to where he was now leaning against the wall, panting so much he could barely stay upright. As he got closer the guy started to tremble so much Minho was afraid he would tip over, so he reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. The man flinched and Minho pulled his hand back as though he had burned it. He should have known better than to touch him! Minho cursed his own stupidity and inattentiveness.

“Sit back down, okay?” Minho had never used any of his demon powers to comfort somebody, and they protested at something so unnatural, but he put all of his energy into his words to persuade the human to listen to him. At first it didn’t feel like it was working, but then he sat down again.

“Good. That was very good. What’s your name?” He asked softly.

“My name is Jisung… Han Jisung…”

“Alright, Han Jisung. My name is Minho.” He hesitated for a second. “I need you to take a deep breath for me… Do you think you can do that?” Minho felt his magic wrapping around the human’s spirit like velvet, urging it to let him in.

His answer was a soft nod and the sound of Jisung taking a shaky breath.

“Good. Do it again. Can… I touch you?”  
Jisung nodded again and Minho moved closer until he was sitting right next to Jisung. He put an arm around his unlikely acquaintance and stroked his back. His skin tingled where they were touching and every inch of his being screamed against what he was doing. This… this was wrong, how could he even think of helping someone? But the alternative to doing this… it simply wasn’t an alternative at all.

“You’re… doing great. Just keep taking nice, deep, even breaths for me, okay? Just focus on my voice. It’s going to be okay, I promise.” Minho had never praised someone before, not like this, not for doing something that was actually beneficial to them.

It was obvious just how much Jisung was struggling to follow his orders, but somehow his breathing was starting to slow down a little bit, even though Minho’s superhuman ears could still pick up the sound of his frantic heartbeat. He felt a pinching sensation on his upper arm and when he looked down he saw that Jisung had resorted to squeezing the life out of it, but he didn’t say anything. It was probably helping him deal with his emotions.

They stayed in that position until Minho lost track of time, still whispering reassuring words to Jisung and using his powers to ground him. It seemed like hours later when Minho suddenly noticed that the human’s breathing had returned to normal and his heart was no longer beating fast enough to be a cause of concern. Jisung was leaning his head against his shoulder and actually seemed close to falling asleep.

“Feeling better?”

“Mhm…” He received a sleepy nod as an answer.

“What happened?”

“Panic attack… bad one…"

“Wait… has this happened to you before?”

“Yeah…” Jisung sighed, then he looked up at Minho. “Are you an angel or something?"

Minho snorted in disbelief. “Hardly."

Jisung chewed on his bottom lip, trying to make sense of his answer, and Minho realized he must have bitten it earlier because it looked sore and he could clearly see that it was cracked in several places.

“Are you some kind of good spirit?”

Minho sighed. “Let’s just say I’m… someone who decided to help you, okay? You sound tired, you should sleep. It’s late.”

And, regardless of what time it was, Minho was exhausted. He had never used his powers to this extent before. It was time for him to return, before Jisung took a closer look at him and concluded there was no way the small horns on his head could possibly belong to a benevolent being, let alone his wings.

He thought Jisung had fallen asleep, but then he stirred again. “Come on, go over to your bed, you can’t sleep here on the floor”. The human mumbled his agreement but he didn’t budge, too exhausted to move. Minho sighed. If this was supposed to go anywhere he was going to have to take matters into his own hands.

“Alright… I guess this is how it’s going to be…” Minho huffed. “Don’t move, I don’t want to drop you.” He picked Jisung up and carried him over to his bed. Then, after hesitating for a second, he tucked him in, sensing the human was still too out of it to function at a basic level.

To his great surprise Jisung pulled him down so he ended up lying next to him on top of the covers. Minho gasped in surprise.

“You look tired, too."

Minho sighed. “I am… but sleep won’t fix that. I just need to rest.” Jisung didn’t seem satisfied with that answer, but he was too tired to ask any more questions, or so he thought.

“Minho?"

“Yes?”

“Are you going to be here when I wake up?”

Minho sighed. “I can’t. Maybe I’ll visit? But now you need to sleep… So, sleep, Jisungie.” Minho put all of his energy into his command until he felt the human begin to slip under.

Jisung mumbled something incoherent, but he was too far gone for the demon next to him to understand. Minho waited a short while to make sure Jisung was actually asleep. Then he opened the window, having chosen this way to get home, unfolded his wings from beneath his shirt and disappeared into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you guys like it?^^  
> I'm a new writer (not really lol I just never post my stories) so feel free to leave constructive criticism in the comments, okay? :3  
> That being said, I hope you come back when i upload the next chapter!  
> Till next time,  
> Rabbit xxx


	2. An eventful night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened after Minho met Jisung.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND I'M BACK!!!
> 
> I hope you liked the first chapter^^  
> Now that our demon has met Jisung, it's time take a peek into his day-to-day life... Or rather how it's changed.

Back at the den Minho curled up in a resting position, determined not to dwell on what had occurred that night. Sometimes things just happened, right? And there was no rule that said he wasn’t allowed to help Jisung. Nonetheless, over the next couple of days his encounter with the human haunted Minho. In a way, he knew that what he had done was wrong. No self-respecting demon would ever help a human, but he couldn’t bring himself to view his actions as a mistake. Whenever he tried to imagine a different outcome, tried to imagine simply leaving Jisung to his own devices or taking advantage of him, the human’s teary eyes would slip back into his memory. It got to the point where some of the others began to notice that something was off. Minho was so lost in thought he hardly talked to them anymore.

Five days after he had returned from his solo tour one of his friends cornered him, determined to snap him out of it.

“Hey. What’s going on? You, like, don’t talk to any of us anymore. As in… It’s like you don’t even exist anymore. I haven’t seen you around since you got back from feeding last week. Did something happen?”

Minho sighed. “Hi Seungmin. No, it didn’t. I just… decided to mess around with my powers and it really wore me out.” 

Seungmin scoffed, rubbing his horns in disbelief. “Yeah, right. Minho, for someone older than me you’re a terrible liar, really.”

Seungmin was quite a bit younger than Minho, as far as demons could even have an actual age. Most of them simply appeared one day, born of the cruelty and hatred of the human world. Seungmin was like that, too, though no one had been able to pinpoint what dreadful event had spawned him. 

Minho was different. He was both older and younger than Seungmin. He had shown up one day, as disoriented and confused as a newly-created, fueled only by his desire to hurt. Everything had hurt back then, and Minho had no recollection of how long it had stayed that way. From what the Others had told him, he had fallen into a trance-like state and only awoken a few years ago. 

Together with the other newly-created like Seungmin he had been taught about the balance of their world and about their purpose. It was during one of those lessons that he had discovered he was part of the rare fourth category of demonic beings. There were true demons like Seungmin, born of hatred and anger, demon lords that had existed since the beginning of time, fallen angels who had, for one reason or another fallen from grace and there were the undetermined. They fit into none of the set categories, though many of them eventually discovered they were actually a part of the three aforementioned groups. They all had one thing in common, however: None of them behaved quite like the others and because of that, despite most of them being quite powerful, they tended to stay by themselves. Minho had managed to deviate from that, too, though. He had taken well to the others in his age group, he wasn’t particularly powerful and, apart from how he had come to be, he was hardly any different from his friends. 

Minho sighed, Seungmin’s annoyed expression pulling him back to reality. “Alright, what do you want.” 

“Me and some of the others are going out tonight. Come with us. Listen, I don’t care what happened when you were by yourself but what you’re doing right now is stupid. You went all reclusive on us and you haven’t fed in days. Honestly, you look terrible.” 

He didn’t even bother to try and deny it because it was true. Despite knowing better, he had spent too much time thinking about the human and not enough time thinking about himself. 

“Does it really have to be tonight?” 

Seungmin shot him a venomous glare that left no room for another argument. “We both know that you’re coming along, even if it means I have to chain you to one of the others.”

“Alright, whatever. Just come and get me when it’s time.” Minho groaned. Seungmin was one of the most persistant people he knew, and also one of the most annoying when he wanted to be, which said a lot, seeing as what kind of creature Seungmin was. He watched his friend leave and shook his head. He really didn’t want to go out but the younger demon was right. If he stayed down here for much longer he would have to resort to begging one of the Others to collect energy for him when they went out to feed. That was something strictly reserved for the newly-created and he wouldn’t be able to live it down if he let himself get to that point. 

Minho spent the better part of the remaining day brooding in a corner until Seungmin came to get him. One of the few things that showed he was actually different from the others were his wings. They were massive when he wasn’t concealing them, much stronger than those of any of the others and, in addition to that, he could actually fly. Most demons didn’t grow wings until they were much older, and once they did it took many years for them to be able to carry their weight. In addition to that, Minho’s wings where covered in fine dark feathers that varied from shades of blood red to midnight black depending on the light. A set of claws protruded from the upper joint on both of them. His wings were perhaps one of the only things Minho truly liked about himself.

Their small group left the main den and went to stand outside. Quite out of character Seungmin reached out and tugged on Minho’s shirt. “What’s wrong?” 

“You need to take me with you today.” 

Minho looked around. Seungmin was the only one whose wings hadn’t grown yet, and while the Others had wings, none of them were strong enough to carry someone. Most of them were barely even strong enough to cross the border on their own. 

“Oh, is that why you needed me to come along?” Minho joked, and Seungmin groaned.

“Remind me why I asked you to come along again?”

Minho stuck his tongue out at him. “Because we both know you aren’t going anywhere without me to carry you.” 

That being said he grabbed Seungmin with both of his hands and launched himself off the ground, not bothering to check if the others were following behind. The feeling of the wind brushing through his feathers and the air being pushed out from underneath him was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. Minho tried not to think too hard about the consequences that would ensue if his wings failed him. 

It had happened once, shortly after he had woken up. He had always had his wings and had assumed they would be strong enough to carry him. That assumption had turned out to be false when he had found himself exhausted shortly before crossing over the border. One moment he had been soaring above the ground and the next he had plummeted to the ground as though he had passed out mid-flight. He couldn’t really remember much after that, having been too afraid to think straight, but apparently one of the Others had managed to stop him before he had hit the ground. Flying had never been quite the same for him since that day and he still found himself shying away from precipices. 

Minho focused on the border ahead of them. It was invisible to most of their kind, but he could see it, and all of them could feel it. It looked like the surface of a lake, but from below. Diving up into it felt similar to resurfacing after being underwater. A million sensations assaulted his senses all at once and he would have become disoriented if he hadn’t crossed it before. Getting through to the human world was always easy if you had wings, getting back was the hard part. It required a strong mind and being able to concentrate well. There was no set exit, and if they, as demons, stayed here for too long the atmosphere weakened them. The good in the people around them poisoned them. Minho landed on top of a skyscraper and waited for the others to arrive, too. 

As soon as his feet touched more or less solid ground Seungmin freed himself from Minho’s embrace, giving him a short nod to show his thanks. They didn’t have to wait long until everyone else arrived. There were 15 of them in total, but Seungmin was the only one Minho knew well enough to call him his friend. 

As per usual the strongest got to decide on their target. In this case the strongest was Aaron, a demon with multiple sets of large horns on his head, all of them armed with cruel tips. Minho already knew where he would choose to go, though. A few blocks down he could feel the pull of a party, most likely filled with underage people drinking or people consuming drugs. It was an easy target, and the decision was made quickly. Staying invisible to the human eye they took the elevator down and walked to the apartment complex in question to save their strength for the attack. 

Before entering the building all of them dropped their cover, still making sure to conceal what made them seem inhuman. Horns, wings, tails and pointed teeth stayed out of sight. This was the hardest part for Minho, and the reason he had chosen to wear an oversized sweatshirt. He could never manage to conceal his wings entirely because they were so large, but after reducing their appearance in size he could hide them beneath clothing. 

They didn’t even have to knock or ring the doorbell because several doors on the floor of where the party was taking place were already wide open. Had they had to get someone’s attention to let them in they would have actually had a problem because the music was so loud it made it hard to think clearly.

They received a warm welcome, someone shoved a red plastic cup of something into Minho’s hand, and then they were left to their own devices. 

Being out in groups like this always got to Minho’s head and later on he wouldn’t have been able to recall his exact actions if he had wanted to. The rush of so much excitement and so many things going on at once swept through him, through all of them, and they attacked.

Many hours later Minho finally managed to pull himself together enough to stop for a bit. He could see Seungmin dancing with a girl, Aaron was in the middle of a drinking contest he had started, Devon was busy calling up drug dealers and luring them to the party and he had no idea where some of the others were. He looked out the window only to see a faint strip of red starting to appear along the horizon. He sighed. It was time for them to go home. 

Minho made his way over to Seungmin and shook his shoulder to get his attention. His friend actually growled at him before coming to his senses. His eyes focused and he noticed who was standing next to him. “Oh, it’s you.”

“It’s time to go, the sun is starting to rise.” 

Seungmin let out a groan. “Do we really have to? I don’t want to go yet… I’m having too much fun…” For a second, he looked like a toddler about to throw a tantrum. Minho nodded, ignoring Seungmin’s disappointed expression. “We’ve been here for over eight hours.” While the human world usually didn’t get to him very much he knew it could hurt Seungmin and some of the other younger demons if they weren’t careful. He tugged on Seungmin’s arm until he turned away from the girl and helped him gather the others. None of them really wanted to leave yet but they didn’t have a choice. 

As they were leaving the floor behind and turning to one of the elevators so they could go find a quiet place to open a portal Minho spotted an oddly familiar silhouette in front of an apartment door, and he stopped.

Was it…? No, that couldn’t be. Impossible. This wasn’t even the same place… or was it? Now that he thought about it, it did look vaguely familiar… Minho tapped on Seungmin’s shoulder. 

“Hey, think you guys can do without me?”

Seungmin’s eyebrows shot up. “Why? Hypocrite, weren’t you the one who insisted on leaving because the sun was rising?”

Minho sighed. “You know I have a pretty high tolerance. Besides, I can get back on my own, we both know I can. I just… found something I want to check out.”

Seungmin rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Honestly with the mood everyone else is in I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t even notice one of us was missing.”

“Thanks.” Minho gave him a nod of appreciation and went to catch up to the person he had seen earlier. There was no way it could be him, but he was certain that he hadn’t been mistaken.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm curious: Did it meet your expectations?  
> And who do you think the Person Minho recognizes is? ;)
> 
> Just as with the last chapter, if you have any constructive criticism, please tell me^^   
> I want to know what you guys think.
> 
> See you soon~  
> Rabbit x


	3. Good Intentions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minho meets Jisung a second time, but it does not go the way he thought it would...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just realized i published my first fic on AO3 exactly 366 days after joining the community on here. Coincidence? I think not xD  
> But no, that was actually not intentional. Just thought it's of funny haha
> 
> Special thanks goes out to my beautiful beta Reader for helping me with this chapter~  
> Enjoy!

By the time Minho got to the door he had seen Jisung standing in front of, the human had disappeared. Minho felt torn. He shouldn’t be here anymore, and he specifically shouldn’t be seeking out this particular human for a second time. It was just unnatural, at least if he wasn’t planning on taking advantage of him in some way. 

After hesitating briefly Minho rang the doorbell. He heard someone moving around inside the apartment for a couple of seconds, then the door opened a crack, as far as the lock chain would allow it to. Jisung’s face appeared and his eyes widened.

“It’s you! You came back!”

The demon flashed him a toothy grin. 

“Can I come in?”

Jisung nodded and opened the door all the way. Minho went inside, curious to see what it looked like. He had been expecting to see an apartment, but to his surprise he was in a tiny hallway with three doors. It was hardly big enough for both him and Jisung to stand in side by side. He looked at Jisung, clearly confused. The human opened the door in front of them and led Minho into his room. 

“This is…. Not what I was expecting…”

Jisung shrugged. “Most of the people who live here are college students, so the apartments are small. Without my parents supporting me financially and me working a job outside of university I would never be able to afford an apartment of my own.”

“I see…” Minho didn’t really understand, but it didn’t seem like the right time to ask questions about how human living arrangements worked. 

Jisung looked at him. “I didn’t think you would come to visit me, to be honest with you… When I woke up I thought it was just a dream. But my window was open, and I never leave it open because the air is so bad outside.” Jisung scratched the back of his neck, seeming a little nervous.  
“ Who are you? And how did you even get into my room? I didn’t really… when you found me I wasn’t thinking straight, but now I am, and I have so many questions.”

Minho thanked his lucky stars he was still hiding his demonic assets. For some reason he didn’t want Jisung to think badly of him, and he was well aware that demons were not exactly an example for the most beloved creatures on planet earth, aside from not being something the general population even believed in. He didn’t know how to answer Jisung’s questions without telling him the truth, and he didn’t know how to tell him the truth without being written off as a lunatic. 

“I-“

“And I wanted to thank you.” Jisung bit his lip. It seemed to be a habit of his, if the state of it when Minho had first met him was anything to go by.

“I… wasn’t really in the best state of mind last week. Sorry… something happened and everything just… It was just too much. Happens sometimes… Well, it’s been happening a lot lately, but that’s just because… Never mind.”

Minho raised an eyebrow. If there was one thing he was good at it was telling if someone was lying or holding back information, and Jisung definitely had a secret. “You’re talking about it like it’s not a big deal, but if it makes you feel like that on a regular basis… It sounds like it’s very important to you.”

Jisung gave him a flat look. “What are you, a psychic?”

Minho had to stifle a laugh. “Cold.”

“A magician?”

“Nope, but getting warmer.” 

“I’m not going to guess the right answer, anyway. Besides, my best guess is still that you’re secretly my guardian angel. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to see you and you screwed up and now you’re trying to hide it, who knows.”

Minho scoffed. “I’d have to be pretty bad at my job to let you have a panic attack in the first place. Speaking of which… If you do want to talk about it… You can just tell me.”

Jisung looked slightly annoyed. “Listen… I don’t want to talk about it. And, jokes aside, I don’t know you.”

“You know who I am. My name is Lee Minho.”

The human rolled his eyes. “Yes, I do know that. But we both know that’s not what I meant. You still haven’t answered my question. How did you get into my room?”

Minho bit back a groan. Jisung fascinated him, he was the first person with a mental health problem he had ever encountered and he had wanted to see if he was alright now, that was why he had followed him. He would have returned with the others if he had known the human was going to ask so many questions.

“It’s not that important-“

Jisung interrupted him. “Yes, it is! Did you try to break in or something? Did you help me after getting in because you felt sorry for me? Are you a burglar? Honestly, I doubt that Minho is even your real name.”

“It IS my name.”

“So how did you get in then?”

Minho wanted to tell him, but at the same time he didn’t. He knew Jisung wasn’t going to like his answer either way. If he told him the truth the best case scenario was Jisung not believing him. The worst case scenario was him actually believing him and starting a witch hunt, if humans still did that.

“I-“ He gulped. “I didn’t break in. I promise. I don’t know how to make you believe me…” He shouldn’t care what a human thought of him. He should just walk out on Jisung and disappear, open a gate and go back home-

“I heard you screaming. I was visiting my cousin last week, he’s a university student like you. I was on my way to the elevators when I heard someone screaming inside their apartment and… I got worried that someone was hurting them. I knocked on the door it seemed to be coming from and you opened it.”

Minho stammered, his tongue stumbling over the words with how quickly he was trying to speak.

“The elevators aren’t anywhere remotely close to my apartment. I don’t believe a word of what you just said. I may have been pretty out of it but I don’t remember opening the door. Actually, in my memories it seems more like you appeared out of thin air.”

“That’s ridiculous, you let me in and-“

Jisung was becoming increasingly hostile. 

“I didn’t let you in. Honestly, thinking about it… You should leave. You helped me last week and I’m grateful for that, but… this is more than weird, okay?”

“Just let me explain-“

“You said that before and everything that came out of your mouth was a lie. I don’t want to talk to you anymore. Please leave my apartment.” 

“Why won’t you just let me explain?!”

Jisung sighed. “None of what you’ve been saying makes any sense. I don’t see any reason why I should continue to listen to you. You’re making me uncomfortable. You need to leave.”

“Just let me say something, damn it!”  
Jisung started to reach for his phone, probably to call the authorities, and a flash of disappointment radiated through Minho’s chest. When he had gotten here everything had seemed perfect, and this human was just so interesting. He didn’t want to have to leave yet, and the more Jisung seemed to want him to leave, the more invested he was becoming in finding out more about him. The thought that he wouldn’t get to see him again, or find out if his attacks got any better, annoyed him. He had to prevent that from happening, and there was only one solution he could think of right now. 

Minho took a step forward and put both of his hands on Jisung’s shoulders, effectively stopping him in his tracks. “Jisung, listen to me.”

Jisung froze. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?! Let go of me!” He tried to wrestle his way out of the demon’s grip.

Minho looked straight at him, feeling the magic flowing through his veins. “Jisung.” His voice was like a snake, slowly winding itself around Jisung’s spirit as it fought to escape.

The human stopped, a confused look starting to settle onto his face. “You… you’re supposed to let go of me. I said you need to stop, why are your hands still on my shoulders?” He sounded confused, too.

Minho thanked his lucky stars. If a demon had used magic to get into a person’s head once it was easy for them to get back inside a second time. Because he had already left a trace of his magic on Jisung when he had calmed him down from the attack a week ago, it was easy for him to latch onto that trace to regain access.

“Jisung, look at me.” Every single word was laced with magic, and Jisung looked up slowly until his brown eyes met Minho’s black ones again. Minho could feel echoes of the human’s thoughts and emotions in his own mind through the magic. Jisung felt dizzy, like he had had more drinks than he should have, and sluggish somehow, like thinking itself was exhausting to him.

“Are you listening?” 

Jisung nodded through the confusion and Minho felt him start to sway on his feet. He tightened his grip on his shoulders to steady him.

“You need to believe me. I promise I don’t want to hurt you. Do you believe me?”

Jisung nodded again. His eyes looked slightly glazed over.

“The night you first met me I knocked on your apartment door and you let me inside. You remember that, don’t you? If you think about it, really think about it hard, you remember that, don’t you? You let me in. Didn’t you?”

“I… I guess I did… I must have, I remember being afraid, it was too much, I wanted help…”

Minho smiled. Jisung’s mind was already filling in the gaps of his story on its own, creating a memory of an event that had never happened.

“After you let me in you became completely overwhelmed again and you got confused as to how I got in, but now you remember. You remember now. Tell me.”

Jisung looked at Minho in a daze. “I… let you into my apartment that night. I just… got confused. I let you in.”

Minho nodded. “That’s right. Remember that. You let me in.”

He pulled back more and more, slowly severing the connection and stopping the flow of magic. 

Jisung looked at Minho like he was waking up after a long nap. “What… just happened? I feel so dizzy…” He groaned softly and pushed the demon’s hands off of his shoulders. “My head is just killing me…”

“I think you almost fainted for a second. We were talking and you got really worked up and then you started tipping to the side… I caught you. It only lasted for a second or so though. Are you alright?”

The concern in Minho’s voice was real, he wasn’t faking it. He had done what he felt he had to do, but he really hoped he hadn’t hurt Jisung in the process.

“Sorry… Must have blacked out or something… I probably forgot to eat or something… Shit, I can’t remember a single thing we were talking about. It must have been important if I got that agitated…”

“You were complaining about how loud some of your neighbors are.”

Jisung frowned for a second, but then he nodded. “Yeah, of course. I mean, can you believe it? If you were visiting your cousin tonight you must have heard them… I don’t understand how they think they’re going to get through university if they party like that every week… I hope no one made you uncomfortable.”

Minho thought of himself and the Others at that party. “This happens on a regular basis?”

“Yeah, I couldn’t even sleep because of it. I gave up on that at around 3am and decided to go to a 24-hour café instead. I was just getting back home when you met up with me again. Speaking of which… is your apartment far from here? You probably didn’t get any more sleep than I did…”

The demon shrugged. “It’s on the other side of the city.”

Jisung raised his eyebrows. “It’s going to take you a while to get back… You weren’t going to drive like this, were you?”

Minho shrugged. “No, not really, I was going to take the subway.”

“If you want, and if you have nowhere to be for the next few hours, you can crash in my room for a bit and then we can have lunch. If you don’t mind sleeping next to me that is. I don’t really have a couch. My bed is wide enough for two people, though. I owe you one for helping me out the other night.”

Minho hesitated. While he had never experienced otherworld fatigue himself, he had heard the stories, stories of demons getting too caught up in something and suddenly finding themselves drained of all energy, unable to return and too weak to feed. It had happened to Seungmin once, and the younger demon had only survived because he hadn’t been by himself, the others having to carry him home. It had taken him weeks to recover. 

On the other hand, he really wanted to spend more time with Jisung. He knew his limits quite well, he also knew that he had a very high tolerance, and he didn’t want to leave yet.

Minho smiled. “No, I don’t really have anywhere to be for the next few hours. But I need to get going in the afternoon, I’m expecting visitors later today.”

Jisung returned his smile. “That’s fine. To be honest with you I can’t sleep too well with the sun up, anyway, but I want to at least take a nap.” He walked over to the bed and patted it. “Like I said, the bed is big enough and I don’t mind, as long as you don’t, either.”

The change in his behavior was enough to make Minho feel dizzy. Just a few minutes ago Jisung had been ready to throw him out of the apartment and now he was offering to let him sleep in his bed. He felt oddly unhappy, as though he had done something wrong. Jisung went over to the light switch and turned it off before returning to the bed, the light seeping in through the window blinds being enough for him to find his way back without stubbing his toes on anything. He laid down on the bed and Minho followed him hesitantly, laying down next to him.

Even though he had told him he wouldn’t be able to sleep well, anyway, it only took a few minutes for Jisung’s breathing to become deeper and more even. 

Minho turned towards him in the dark and watched his sleeping figure, a heavy sigh escaping him. He hadn’t done anything wrong, he had acted exactly the way his fellow demons would have expected him to, and yet he felt like he had made a mistake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh oh... Meanhoe, did you make a mistake? Are you sure you made the right decision?
> 
> Anyways, see ya next time

**Author's Note:**

> Did you guys like it?^^  
> I'm a new writer (not really lol I just never post my stories) so feel free to leave constructive criticism in the comments, okay? :3  
> That being said, I hope you come back when i upload the next chapter!  
> Till next time,  
> Rabbit xxx


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